Local rapper Kurlzzz is a part of the huge hip hop scene in the Coachella Valley. I recently saw him perform at The Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert, and was amazed at how he was able to combine tight beats with a flow that was both funny and serious flow. Check out his song “Ice Cream” on all streaming platforms. (Warning: explicit lyrics.) Roos is the latest to take The Lucky 13; here are his (rather brief) answers.

What was the first concert you attended?

Kurupt.

What was the first album you owned?

YelaWolf.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Twenty One Pilots.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

BTS (the Bangtan Boys).

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

Hamilton.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

Rap.

What’s your favorite music venue?

Bart Lounge in Cathedral City.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“Bop bop gimme top top on the low low,” “Bop,” by Kurlzzz, featuring Chardonnay, Shane Francis and bennubyrd.

What band or artist changed your life? How?

Wiz Khalifa. I saw what he did, and knew I wanted to be 10 times better than him.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?

Nipsey Hussle: “Looking back at your life, would you do anything differently?”

It was the third time in four years that Copa has hosted the event—an honor bestowed upon Copa due to its win in the Best Nightclub category. The event honors the winners of the Independent's yearly readers' poll, which features almost 130 categories, ranging from Best Chiropractor, to Best Vegan/Vegetarian Cuisine, to Best Marijuana Dispensary.

The biggest contingents at the party—hosted by Independent editor/publisher Jimmy Boegle—came to celebrate Augustine Casino, which took the top spot in a whopping eight categories; Paul Zapala's win as Best Real Estate Agent; and KGAY 106.5's victory as Best Radio Station.

Below is a gallery of photos from the event, taken by Kevin Fitzgerald.

The band Saints and Rebels has gone from occasional cover-song performances at The Hood Bar and Pizza’s open-mic night to frequent gigs around the valley—all within a matter of months. Catch Saints and Rebels at The Hood on Saturday, Dec. 14, opening for punk legends Guttermouth. At the helm of the group is Austin Lawrence, an eccentric frontman and bass-player who knows how to give a great performance. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/saintsandrebelsofficial. Lawrence recently answered The Lucky 13; here are the results.

What was the first concert you attended?

Lynyrd Skynyrd, when I was 7. I hated it.

What was the first album you owned?

A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out by Panic! at the Disco; and Move Along by The All American Rejects.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Mom Jeans, Remo Drive, McCafferty, I Hate Sex, and Joyce Manor.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

Anything on the radio.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

Grant McDonald.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

I don’t have guilty pleasures, because I love what I love … but I guess “Barbie Girl” by Aqua.

What’s your favorite music venue?

The House of Blues in Anaheim.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

“Trash hangs with trash, and I’m the worst of the worst,” from “Trailer Trash,” McCafferty.

What band or artist changed your life? How?

Streetlight Manifesto, because they told me that they “guarantee I’ll wake in a better place in a better time.”

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?

Every year, when late August rolls around, and we start the first round of Best of Coachella Valley voting, the results announcement seems so far away.

Yet … the next three months fly by—and while the time is flying, a lot of work is being done.

Primary, that work is being done by you, the amazing readers of the Independent. To start, you tackle that first-round ballot—including almost 130 categories and NO pre-selected finalists, just a blank field to fill in next to each category.

After that goes on for several weeks, we here at the Independent get to work, and we tabulate all those first-round ballots to determine who you picked as our finalists. Then, in late September comes the announcement of each category’s three to six finalists (five in most cases)—and the start of the final round of voting. After four weeks of that, we here at the Independent check the results and begin putting together our special Best of Coachella Valley print edition, as well as this online version.

We say it every year, but it’s worth repeating: Man, you readers are good. Yeah, other publications and websites here in the Coachella Valley do readers’ polls—but the slate of winners and finalists you Independent readers come up with is so much better than the rest, partially because of how we do our polling (i.e., asking readers to vote just once in each round, to lessen the ballot-box-stuffing), but mostly because you, our readers, are smart and community-minded. This is a fantastically diverse, valley-wide selection of finalists and winners.

So, please join us to celebrate at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Dec. 18, at Copa Nightclub—again your selection this year as Best Nightclub—at 244 E. Amado Road, in Palm Springs, for the Best of Coachella Valley Awards Party. All of the winners present will receive certificates and have an opportunity to say thanks. Plus, we may have several surprises in store for everyone. I hope to see you there.

Congratulations to all of the winners and finalists … and welcome to the Best of Coachella Valley 2019-2020!

—Jimmy Boegle, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Coachella Valley is brimming with musical talent—yet it’s lacking when it comes to music venues.

Thank goodness for The Hood Bar and Pizza in Palm Desert.

Over the years, The Hood has transformed from a simple metal bar into … well, a metal-and-everyone-else bar that is also one of the premier performance venues in the valley, with events being held every day. While countless local bands have gained popularity thanks to a boost from The Hood, the venue has also hosted numerous famous acts, such as surf-rock legend Dick Dale.

In recent years, The Hood has also started hosting events such as a weekly Drag Queen Bingo night, and has become a regular participant in the Desert AIDS Project’s annual Dining Out for Life night. This fascinatingly vibrant mix is due in large part to its owner, Brad Guth—an out-and-proud gay man.

“I grew up in a time when people were not as accepting and tolerant as they are today,” said Guth. “It was shameful to be different, especially with regard to sexual orientation. That was never discussed or taught in school. Nonetheless, I had a great time just being myself. I was always confident. For example, I was never too interested in being an athlete—so I became a male cheerleader, my high school’s first! And while I took a lot of heat for that, I had a blast, and my family fully supported it.”

Guth told me a story about skipping the homecoming dance during his senior year of high school.

“I went to my first alternative club in West Hollywood instead,” Guth said. “It was a big club, frequented by many celebrities, and I was nervous as hell. I was working as a waiter at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour, and I used to hear all of the other waiters talking about this place. When I arrived, there was a long line outside. I was so scared but forged ahead and entered. It was a Friday night, and disco was at its height. It was such an amazing and freeing experience. Everyone was just having fun, and no judgement. There were a number of celebrities there, many of whom I became friends with over the coming years, and they didn’t have to worry about being outed or followed by the paparazzi.

“I lived the rest of my adult life that way, never forgetting that first experience. I was always me, never trying to hide anything. When I started my career in retail, where I spent the next 30 years, I had a supervisor who told me I would never succeed in a straight-male-dominated industry. To prove him wrong, I just worked harder and better and proved my abilities. To that end, I became the youngest buyer ever given the position at Bullock’s department store, now Macys.

“I built the staff up from scratch. I negotiated all the leases, and we set up three websites that generated millions of dollars in sales. I traveled a lot, and had an East Coast office in Manhattan, and a West Coast office in Las Vegas. I alternated between the two for two-week periods. … (After) my grandchild was born, I bought a home here in the desert so I could come visit him every other weekend from my Vegas office. Two years later, I moved here full time.”

Coming from a strong business background, it’s no surprise Guth was able to improve The Hood, which, when he purchased it, was nowhere near as neighborly as it is now.

“The Hood was somewhere that I would go from time to time, because I saw a lot of opportunities to improve,” Guth said. “I’d go every day and sit on the back patio and think of new ideas to enlarge it and make things bigger and better. I looked at two other locations to purchase over a few months, one being Schmidy’s Tavern. The deciding factor was when I asked the landlord of Schmidy’s where they saw (the center where Schmidy’s was) in five years, and he said ‘exactly the same.’ That’s when I really set my sights on The Hood.

“I knew that I could improve the environment and the service, and grow the business by creating a comfortable hangout spot. I basically wanted to create an environment where I would feel comfortable hanging out. It was also a much-different crowd back then. We wanted to keep that crowd by adding more events, and making the place a destination in Palm Desert. We also wanted to attract new people with the expansion of the patio and cosmetic changes.”

Those changes didn’t all happen at once.

“We achieved everything over time,” Guth said. “My first weekend, we opened the back-patio bar and added new furniture, and that became the place to be. It’s a fun hangout place, and it’s one of the best patios for our type of venue in the valley. While we did these changes outside, we started adding events … seven nights a week. Each event is geared to different types of clientele so that we could provide a lifestyle environment.

“When people visit The Hood, I want them to feel like they’re visiting my house. It’s important that people feel really comfortable and safe.”

The Hood’s weekly schedule has something for virtually everyone.

“We added a game night on Monday that’s geared toward younger people,” he said. “Tuesdays, we added Drag Queen Bingo and all-day, all-night happy hour. It was a scary proposition, but it has become very big. We added an open mic to our beer-pong nights on Wednesdays, which has been a huge success. That attracts people from all walks of life—poets, singers, songwriters and comedians. People come in from around the valley and even different states. That and beer pong really bring in a younger crowd.

“We kept doing Karaoke Thursdays, which is always fun, and many people look forward to it. Fridays and Saturdays are always either bands or DJs. It used to be primarily metal bands, but we’ve successfully introduced different genres of music: cumbia, metal, soft rock, hard rock, etc. We try to mix it up and not have every weekend be the same. Sundays are comedy nights, which started a year ago and have been really successful. We’ve booked some really famous comedians like Pauly Shore and Jamie Kennedy.”

I asked Guth what obstacles he faces running such an active venue.

“The entertainment is very time-consuming,” Guth said. “People may not realize it, but it’s a lot of collecting fliers and posting them every single day, and adjusting to last-minute changes or cancellations. We try to book a month or two out and look at what our competition is doing to stay ahead. It’s a difficult process and sometimes very frustrating.”

The Hood personally means a lot to me: It helped kickstart my career, as both a musician and a writer, because of the community fostered there. Guth said it’s this sense of community that keeps him going.

“There have been some nights with bands that have been absolutely fantastic,” Guth said. “When Empty Seat won the first round of the CV Weekly competition (late last year), we immediately booked them. It was great to see new talent in the valley, and it’s been exciting seeing them grow to be very popular. It’s always good to know you were part of someone else’s success. There’s a concert for kids that we do in June, which many people don’t know that we do: There’s a music school that comes to The Hood and has their students perform in the afternoon hours. We’ve actually gone on to book those kids’ bands, like Silver Sky, who we just had a single-release party for. It’s really gratifying to be a part of growth like that.”

The Hood stands as one of the most diverse and accepting places to be in the valley—and that is due to the leadership of Brad Guth.

“I think today, The Hood is likely the most-inclusive place to hang out, welcoming folks of all races, ages and sexual orientations, where everyone can come and hang out and feel welcome.” said Guth. “I am super-proud of that accomplishment. It really was what I always set out to do.”

The Hood Bar and Pizza is located at 74360 Highway 111 in Palm Desert. For more information, call 760-636-5220, or visit facebook.com/HoodBarAndPizza.

The Coachella Valley is full of musicians pushing their limits and creating heavy rock soundtracks that would make even Kyuss proud—but it’s always a treat to come across a band creating a completely different desert-influenced sound.

This brings us to the self-described “desert jangle” of Plastic Ruby.

“It’s really the only thing I can use to describe our sound,” said John Marek, the vocalist, guitarist and leader of Plastic Ruby. “If you’ve ever heard of jangle pop, it’s like that, and we also have some desert influences in our music. We associate our psychedelic sound with the desert. Most of our sound is poppy-’60s influenced.”

The music created by Marek and co. is extremely pleasing, with each song from the band’s self-titled EP—as well as the two recent singles, “Beach Day” and “Just the Type”—featuring dance-y and groovy guitar lines backed by dreamy basslines and synth ambiance; Marek’s extremely distinguishable vocal melodies are just the cherry on top. “Bad Conscience Blues” and “Soda” are some of my favorites. Those two new singles are signs of a forthcoming album, which Marek confirms is “already in the works.”

“With that video, I was really inspired by the old White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’ video,” said Marek. “That was my influence for it, but I wanted it to be sloppier, more like you’re going into a different room versus however they did it. That video took me two or three days, and I always wait until the last minute. We actually filmed the last scene the day before its release. I’ve been making skate montages since middle school, and making videos was honestly my first love before music.”

A trip over to Plastic Ruby’s Facebook page (facebook.com/plasticruby) reveals that Marek also creates hilarious promotional videos for some shows.

“My friends and I are all fans of alternative comedy. We’re big on the Tim and Eric Show,” he said. “It’s what we grew up watching, and it’s definitely found a way into our videos.”

Marek has been creating music for a long time, well before Plastic Ruby’s genesis in 2017; he’s been uploading songs to his YouTube channel since 2012. An upload from six years ago called “John Marek—Back of My Head (Guitar + Drums @ the Same Time)” has more than 1 million views, with numerous awestruck comments on how Marek manages to play the guitar and drums simultaneously.

“To be honest, that video really helped me a lot,” Marek said. “It actually got placed in a commercial for a fiber-optics company in Canada, and one of my other songs, the first I ever made, was featured in an Audi commercial. It really got my foot in the door in terms of getting my music published. People keep telling me to make another one, but I don’t really want to be known for that. I don’t want to box myself into a corner. I’d rather people just appreciate what I do based on the merit of what I do.

“I put a lot of effort and time into how I create songs, rather than being the biggest shredder in the world. I can appreciate technical musicianship stuff, but what I want is the catchiest, coolest-sounding song possible. I just want to make a living off music. I don’t want to be famous or whatever. I just want to make a living off of what I love doing.”

Plastic Ruby will perform at Beats and Brews, starting at 3 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Saguaro Palm Springs, 1800 E. Palm Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. For tickets or more information, visit www.facebook.com/events/383126549267702. Plastic Ruby is also scheduled to perform at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Concert for Autism Pre-Show Party at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert; admission is a suggested $5 donation. For more information, visit plasticruby.com.

Captain Ghost, a four-piece alternative-rock band, is a growing presence in the Coachella Valley music scene thanks to the group’s powerful anthems and ballads—plus its political and perhaps even conspiratorial lyrics.

“I took a sheet of paper and wrote down names that came to mind. I had some really good ones, but they were all taken—pretty much every one,” Burton said. “Captain Ghost was one of the first things I wrote down. I didn’t really like it at first, but when I found out there were no other bands named Captain Ghost, I thought it was kinda cool.

“Coincidentally, there is a book from the ’50s called Captain Ghost, which I’d love to read now. One of my first choices for a name was ‘The Promised Software.’”

Mikey Hendricks said the band’s power and exuberant stage presence have been helpful in growing a fan base.

“The big thing about playing live shows, especially out here in this tight-knit community, is to just make it fun,” Hendricks said. “Back in high school, I was in a band playing house shows and generator parties in the middle of the desert, and the big thing was jumping off of amps, swinging guitars around, and making it fun for all of your friends who were there every single weekend. The music doesn’t always hold itself or keep people’s attention, so you just want to make it fun for everyone and keep it interesting.”

Corwin Hendricks added: “The music just has so much energy. It’s hard to not get into it.”

The expression and passion of the music slaps you in the face from the first few verses of the band’s lead single, “Poison Skies.”

“That song pretty much wrote itself when I learned about what was going on in the environment, and the plans that all these scientists have to combat global warming,” Burton said. “Their techniques kinda frustrated me—raining all these metals down. To know that some of these metals are neurotoxins, and watching my kids go outside and play knowing this stuff is coming down just pissed me off.”

Why was “Poison Skies” chosen as the band’s first single?

“The deciding factor is I envisioned the video for it,” Mikey Hendricks said. “It’s a dual-concept video with nuclear-era World War II footage, spraying chemicals on plants—basically proof that the government has poisoned us in the past, and suggesting, ‘What makes you think they’re not doing it right now?’ We went out and shot in Sky Valley and slapped free-domain footage of civil-defense videos and duck-and-cover films on top of it.”

The political lyrics continue on second single “Raise the Flag,” while the third single, “True Blue,” is a love ballad.

“I think it’s really important for an artist to have some personal songs. A lot of the topics on songs we’ve talked about are fairly new to me,” Burton said. “I’ve been writing songs for a long time, and they started out as personal and selfish, either about me or about a girl. But as I've grown up and educated myself, they took a turn in the current direction. I don’t always want to be writing about social or political things. It’s actually been an accomplishment for me to get back into personal songwriting. ‘True Blue’ is a song about a relationship where you try to be true—but mixed with some end-times type of flair.”

Burton explained how the band came to be.

“I’m originally from Orange County. My dad and I used to come out here on the weekends to Mission Lakes to play golf and crash golf carts,” Burton said. “In 2002, my dad moved out here, and I ended up moving with him, but I still had a band in OC that I would go back and jam with on the weekends. I was never in a serious band, always just jam or garage bands. … I lived in Vegas for a few years and then moved back to Indio, still writing songs—but I had a family, so that came first. Ever since my first child was on the way, I made it a priority to be a good provider for them.

“After I got a good career, I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do—my passion is music. I went into a studio and did a few songs, then got invited by a friend to play an acoustic show at Plan B. So I went and played a few songs, then stuck around for the band after, which was Upper Class Poverty (which featured Mikey Hendricks on bass, and Corwin Hendricks on drums). I was really impressed by their rhythm section, and after seeing them play, I thought that I needed some guys like that. We hung out that night, and I hit them up on Facebook.”

Hales came on board after the original guitarist left. “I was/am very busy, but once I heard the tracks, I was in,” he said.

Busy is an understatement: Hales is currently part of eight (!) bands, while Burton has a wife and kids.

“Yeah, we only get to practice on Sunday, and I work trade jobs, Brad’s got a Monday through Friday gig, and Corwin works weekends,” Hales said.

Mikey Hendricks added: “You have to keep the money flowing in so you can keep buying strings. We’d really love for this to be full time and have it be able to support all of us. It’s not really hard for us to be doing what we’re doing right now, because we love what we’re doing. Our upcoming album and release show will hopefully spark things to go further.”

Mikey Hendricks elaborated on the band’s plan of attack.

“Our immediate future is releasing our full-length album on Aug. 17, which will feature Nick Hales’ mandolin debut, with a release show at The Hood that night. We’re then following that with a tour. This upcoming season, we hope to play a lot more shows and create more music for the next album.”

Hales summed up the plan: “Today, the valley. Tomorrow, the world.”

Captain Ghost will perform at 9 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 17, at The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, in Palm Desert. Admission is free. For more information on the band, visit captainghost.com.

June means the start of summer—and a relatively quiet month as far as big events go. However, never fear, because there’s still plenty of entertainment to enjoy.

The Fantasy Springs Resort Casino’s Special Events Center is fairly calm in June, but the Rock Yard is in full swing on Saturday nights. Here’s the list of performers, with each show starting at 7:30 p.m. June 1: Journey tribute band Escape. June 8: Sammy Hagar tribute band Three Lock Box. June 15: Eric Clapton tribute band Clapton Road. June 22: Ozzy Osbourne tribute band Mr. Crowley. Saturday, June 29: The Who tribute band The Who Experience. All Rock Yard shows are free! Fantasy Springs Resort Casino, 84245 Indio Springs Parkway, Indio; 760-342-5000; www.fantasyspringsresort.com.

Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa Rancho Mirage has a fine June slate. At 8 p.m., Friday, June 7, Mexican singer-songwriter Christian Nodal will be performing. When he released his first album Me Dejé Llevar in 2017, he took the music charts by storm, with the album reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Latin Albums chart. The 20-year-old recently released a new album, Ahora, and his star is continuing to rise. Tickets are $65 to $125. At 7 p.m., Saturday, June 15, Art Laboe’s Love Jam VIII will be happening. The lineup includes Baby Bash, MC Magic, Tierra, Frankie J, and LSOB. Come celebrate the popular radio show where you can call in your shout-out to your homeboy or homegirl in lockdown. Tickets are $45 to $65. Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa Rancho Mirage, 32250 Bob Hope Drive, Rancho Mirage; 888-999-1995; www.hotwatercasino.com.

Spotlight 29 Casino has a June event you won’t want to miss. At 8 p.m., Saturday, June 29, the Summer Rap Jam will take place. The lineup includes Warren G, Ying Yang Twins and Petey Pablo. I remember when Warren G released “Regulate” back in the mid ’90s, and everyone was playing it in their cars, on their boom boxes and on their home stereos. Tickets are $30 to $45. Spotlight 29 Casino, 46200 Harrison Place, Coachella; 760-775-5566; www.spotlight29.com.

Morongo Casino Resort and Spa is hosting a couple of great shows. At 9 p.m., Friday, June 14, comedians Jeff Ross and Dave Attell will be performing. Jeff Ross is known as the “Roastmaster General” for his celebrity roasts that have been shown on Comedy Central. He’s roasted some of the best … and some of the worst, including our current president. Dave Attell was the host of Insomniac With Dave Attell, which ran for four seasons on Comedy Central in the early 2000s. Tickets are $49 to $89. At 9 p.m., Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29, the all-male revue show Australia’s Thunder From Down Under returns. Considering how often this show comes back and sells out, it’s one of the hottest tickets around. I picture a mob of ladies screaming their heads off for two hours. Tickets are $25. Morongo Casino Resort Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon; 800-252-4499; www.morongocasinoresort.com.

Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace has a wild June schedule. A few highlights: At 9 p.m., Saturday, June 1, one of my favorite psychedelic-rock bands coming out of Los Angeles, Mystic Braves, will be performing. Organist Ignacio Gonzalez is also one of the owners of Lolipop Records, a popular independent label that has released records around the world. Tickets are $15 to $20. At 8 p.m., Sunday, June 9, country/folk artist Patty Griffin will be performing. She recently released her 10th album and will be at Pappy’s right after a European tour. Tickets are $30. At 8 p.m., Friday, June 28, local musician Gene Evaro Jr. will be performing in celebration of his 30th birthday. After Evaro’s tours with national acts, performances at various music festivals, and music appearances on television shows, one needs to ask: When someone is going to finally sign this guy and make him a bigger name than he already is? Tickets are $20. Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown; 760-365-5956; www.pappyandharriets.com.

The Hood Bar and Pizza has a big event in June. At 9 p.m., Saturday, June 22, fresh off a tour with Tool, All Souls (upper right) will be performing, along with local bands Herbert and Fever Dog. All Souls includes Tony Tornay (Fatso Jetson), Erik Trammell (Black Elk, Brothers Collateral) and Totimoshi members Tony Aguilar and Meg Castellanos. Admission is $5. The Hood Bar and Pizza, 74360 Highway 111, Palm Desert; 760-636-5220; www.facebook.com/hoodbarandpizza.

The Ace Hotel and Swim Club in Palm Springs has an event booked that fans of the Desert Daze festival should attend: At 9 p.m., Thursday, June 6, the fest presents a performance by the band Traps PS. Admission is free! Ace Hotel and Swim Club, 701 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-325-9900; www.acehotel.com/palmsprings.

The Purple Room will soon enter its two-month summer slumber, but not before a fantastic June. At 6 p.m., Saturday, June 1, singer Jonathan Karrant will be performing. A popular recurring performer at the Purple Room, he’s best known for his excellent performances of Great American Songbook and vocal jazz music. Tickets are $30 to $35. At 6 p.m., Saturday, June 8, Scot Bruce will take the stage. He’s one of the best performers of Elvis Presley’s music that you will find. He’s so good at it that he’s been in music videos with Faith Hill and Sheryl Crow. Tickets are $30 to $35. At 6 p.m., Saturday, June 15, Las Vegas will be coming to Palm Springs with Lady Luck. The trio features powerful voices from Broadway, Hollywood, London’s West End and the Vegas strip—and the group will be doing a Las Vegas legends-themed show. Tickets are $30 to $35. Michael Holmes’ Purple Room, 1900 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-322-4422; www.purpleroompalmsprings.com.

Toucan’s Tiki Lounge rolls into June with a couple of fun events. At 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 1, drag star Sutton Lee Seymour will be performing. Seymour is known as the “Robin Williams of drag” and has entertained in sold-out venues around the world. Tickets are $25. At 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 8, America’s Got Talent’s Season 8 runner-up Taylor Williamson (below) will be performing. He’s quite funny. Tickets are $25. Toucans Tiki Lounge and Cabaret, 2100 N. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs; 760-416-7584; reactionshows.com.

The idea for this column came to me as I was getting my head smashed in by a large man in a ninja outfit.

Don’t worry; this didn’t happen in real life, but during a video-game tournament at The Hood Bar and Pizza—a suggestion from our Uber driver who said he would also be competing. I noticed several of the competitors were consuming, in pint glasses and pitchers, something that looked like barber-shop comb sanitizer.

“Why would anyone want to drink that?” my companion wondered. “That’s just begging for a hangover!”

“Why do people eat Tide Pods?” I responded.

I, of course, promptly ordered one. It was my old friend, the AMF. If you don’t know what that is, count yourself lucky. For those of you who have gone to college or drank at a dive bar in the last 20 years, you’ve probably seen it. It’s sweet and sour—and strong enough to make you think you can compete in a video-game tournament at 40. It’s also blue … like really blue, the color blue that only kids younger than 12 consider a good color for things that go into one’s mouth. Oh, and the name … well, let’s say it stands for “adios my friend,” but only the “adios” part is true. It’s basically a variation on a Long Island iced tea, and as I drank, I thought about how little written cocktail history is dedicated to these drinks—the maligned, the infamous, and, dare I say, the occasionally fun cocktails that were ubiquitous during the cocktail “dark ages,” and still have a following today.

The Long Island iced tea … is there a more infamous cocktail? I worked for years doing volume bartending, at night clubs and patio bars especially, and my LIIT game was on point, I must say. That may sound like a silly thing to say, but when your line (mob) at the college bar is significantly longer than the lines at other wells, you know something is up. I mean, despite its hangover-inducing reputation, it’s still a cocktail. There is a right way to make it—and many wrong ways.

Let’s break it down: The standard recipe is equal parts vodka, gin, white rum, tequila blanco and triple sec; as to the amount of each … well, as they say with Ti’ Punch, “chacun prépare sa propre mort.” Each prepares their own death.

The balance, theoretically, comes from the varying flavors of the alcohols and the addition of an ounce or two of sour mix (or an ounce of lemon and 3/4 of an ounce of simple syrup, if you’re fancy). Shake that whole mess; strain into a tall glass with ice; add a good splash of cola—and you’re in business.

• Grateful Dead: Add lemon-lime soda instead of cola; leave out the triple sec, and drizzle blue curaçao and framboise/raspberry liqueur down the sides of the glass (or, preferably, the fish bowl) to create a tie-dyed effect.

This list could go on and on, actually; to avoid diminishing the classiness of this column, I stopped before the “Irish trash can.” (Email me if you actually want that one.) I think you get the point: Not only has the Long Island iced tea become universal; it has become a template on which bored bartenders at questionable establishments still experiment. So who was the genius behind this modern-day classic?

It turns out that is a matter of controversy. Many of the articles online mention the same controversy, between Kingsport, Tenn. (on its own long island) and Long Island, N.Y. A piece from Atlas Obscura sums up the Tennessee story thusly: A bootlegger named Charlie “Old Man” Bishop had a bunch of prohibited hooch lying around and mixed it all together with a little maple syrup. Later, in the 1940s, Ranson Bishop, his son, added the cola and lemon. It’s a cute story; I have no doubt that this bootlegger mixed together his stock with some maple syrup to sweeten and take the edge off of his Prohibition fire water. I don’t even doubt that his son added lemon and cola to his pop’s cocktail. However, there is no way on Earth Old Man Bishop had tequila or vodka, much less triple sec, on his island in Tennessee during Prohibition. So … his maple-syrup cocktail was likely more of an old fashioned, really, and not the drink we know. I am calling this one a myth, albeit a plausible one. Let’s move a few decades ahead …

The story I had been familiar with is the one crediting Bob “Rosebud” Butt for whipping it together for a cocktail contest in 1972, while working at the Oak Beach Inn in Long Island, N.Y. I found this quote on the certainly-not-biased “Long Island Grub” blog:

My concoction was an immediate hit and quickly became the house drink at the Oak Beach Inn. By the mid-1970s, every bar on Long Island was serving up this innocent-looking cocktail, and by the ’80s, it was known the world over.

Who wouldn’t trust a guy from Long Island with the nickname “Rosebud”? Mystery solved!

But … not so fast. Further digging led me to an article on Thrillist in which the author claims the drink showed up in 1961 in Betty Crocker’s New Picture Cook Book and in 1966 in American Home All-Purpose Cookbook by Virginia Habeeb. I spent a lot of time looking for an online or PDF version of either, without luck. The author didn’t mention how he came across that information (leaving a link to Betty Crocker’s website and a modern recipe does not help), and I hit a dead end. These books are available but rather pricey on eBay. If you have a copy of either in your mid-century kitchen and would email me a picture of said recipe, you would be helping with cocktail history, and I will definitely give you a shout-out out in a future column. To be fair, even Butt admits others might have made similar drinks before him, but that his was the one that really took off, and therefore should be considered the original.

Well, it’s high festival season as I write this. If the swarms of young women taking selfies dressed like Billy the Kid are driving you to drink something unwise, the Long Island iced tea is certainly a good option. Stay away from the Grateful Dead, though; it’s guaranteed to make you feel like you went to three days of outdoor concerts the next day.

Kevin Carlow is a bartender at Truss and Twine, and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Josh Heinz is originally from Tennessee, but he's now a pillar in the Coachella Valley local music scene. He is the frontman for Blasting Echo, the guitarist for 5th Town, the founder of the Concert for Autism, and the host of Open-Mic Night at The Hood Bar and Pizza every Wednesday. See Blasting Echo Saturday, March 16, at The Hood during Dali Llama’s CD-release show. For more information on Heinz’s bands, visit www.facebook.com/blastingecho and www.facebook.com/5thtown. He was kind enough to answer the Lucky 13; here are his answers.

What was the first concert you attended?

Probably Christian recording artist Michael W. Smith. But my first real “rock” concert was Heart on their Bad Animals tour at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tenn. I think that was 1987. I was 12.

What was the first album you owned?

Hmm … it’s hard to remember for sure. My first albums were bought on tapes. Maybe it was Heart's Bad Animals; maybe it was Guns and Roses' Appetite for Destruction; or maybe it was Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. But I know that before those, I had a Best of The Doors tape, which doesn’t necessarily count as an album. That’s more of a compilation.

What bands are you listening to right now?

Besides practice recordings of new Blasting Echo songs and mixes from the upcoming 5th Town record, nothing specific. I’m kind of all over the place, certainly (including listening to) live Pearl Jam shows. I listen to a lot of local bands from our music community and bands from my time in Memphis—specifically The Subteens. Look them up. Find Burn Your Cardigan. It’s good stuff. I’m also lucky to have recordings from the last two Concert for Autism benefits, so l listen to a lot of those performances as well. Perhaps I need to commit to finding more new nationally known bands.

What artist, genre or musical trend does everyone love, but you don’t get?

EDM. I get why people are into it, but that’s not my thing.

What musical act, current or defunct, would you most like to see perform live?

Neil Young. I’ve been a fan for a long time. I was bummed I couldn’t see him at Desert Trip. I just couldn’t afford it. Everyone I’ve talked to who was there for weekend two said it was incredible.

What’s your favorite musical guilty pleasure?

I don’t think I have one, but I listen to a lot of movie and television scores. They just take me places in my head, and I love it. I enjoy works by James Horner, Michael Kamen, James Newton Howard, Thomas Newman, certainly John Williams and Hans Zimmer. Zimmer’s score for The Thin Red Line is my favorite. I also love the scores that Trent Reznor has done. Before he ever officially scored anything, he was doing instrumental pieces with Nine Inch Nails that were beautiful, moving and powerful.

What’s your favorite music venue?

Probably The New Daisy Theatre in Memphis. I only played it a few times, but I saw a ton of shows there. It's a small theater on Beale Street that holds about 1,000 people—nice and intimate for a theater.

What’s the one song lyric you can’t get out of your head?

Since Blasting Echo is working on new material to record soon, most of the lyrics stuck in my head are my own—because I’m trying to remember them.

What band or artist changed your life? How?

Certainly Pearl Jam. The lyrics and the music spoke to me in a very heavy way when they came out. It gave me an honest voice that I identified with, and that inspired me to follow suit by writing and creating my own music to deal with things going on in my life.

You have one question to ask one musician. What’s the question, and who are you asking?

I’m sure there are more important questions to ask more important musicians, but right now, I can only think to ask Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam: “Why has your dirty tone become less aggressive/crunchy over the years?”

What song would you like played at your funeral?

I don’t know. When I was younger, I probably would have said something somber. But now I think I would like something more celebratory of my life, my wife and my kids.